Indian Heliotrope: How to Spot and Control Buntot Leon in Rice
Indian heliotrope is a hairy broadleaf weed that farmers call buntot leon or elepante. Its small lavender to white flowers grow on a long spike that curls at the tip. You will find it in rainfed lowland rice fields in the Philippines. This page shows you how to spot it and how it competes with your palay. It also shows how to control it before it drops seed.
What Is Indian Heliotrope?
Indian heliotrope is an upright annual herb from the heliotrope family, Heliotropiaceae, once grouped under Boraginaceae. It has many local names. Depending on the area, you may hear ar aritos, bahu baho, buntot leon, elepante, kambra kambra or higad higaran. Several of these names fit its long, curled flower spike, which can look like a tail, a trunk or a caterpillar.
This damo shows up in rainfed lowland rice fields. Being an annual, it lives for only one season. Within a single crop it sprouts, grows, flowers, sets seed and dies. Seed is its only way to spread. The seeds form along the curled spike, then drop to the soil and wait for the next planting. So each plant left standing can seed a whole new patch.
| Name | Indian heliotrope |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Heliotropium indicum |
| Family | Heliotropiaceae (Boraginaceae) |
| Weed group | Broadleaves (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Ar aritos, bahu baho, buntot leon, elepante, kambra kambra, higad higaran |
| Life cycle | Annual |
| Spreads by | Seeds |
| Where it grows | Rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Indian Heliotrope
Look for an upright, branching plant with a hairy stem. The leaves are oval to long oval and feel rough when you rub them. Like other broadleaf weeds, the leaves are wide with netted veins, unlike grasses and sedges. Still, the flowers give it away. Small lavender to white flowers line up on one side of a long spike, and the tip of the spike curls over like a tail.
- An upright, branched plant with a stem covered in hairs.
- Oval leaves with a rough surface that feels like fine sandpaper.
- Small lavender to white flowers lined up on only one side of the spike.
- A long flower spike that curls at the tip like a tail or a trunk.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
This weed competes with your palay for sunlight, water and fertilizer. It stands upright and branches out, so its rough leaves can shade the young rice near it. In rainfed fields, where water can run short, it takes moisture the crop badly needs. Young rice feels this most, before it can close its canopy.
Because it is an annual that spreads by seed, each plant that flowers adds seed to your soil. That is how one season's weeds become next season's problem. Seeds can also get mixed with the harvested palay. A weedy patch can give insects a place to hide near your rice as well.
How to Control Indian Heliotrope
- Pull plants by hand while they are young, before the curled flower spikes appear. Upright plants are easy to grip and pull out.
- Once a spike has formed, cut it off first and bag it, then pull the plant. This keeps ripe seeds from dropping in the paddy.
- Keep rainwater in the paddy with well kept bunds when you can. Many annual weeds sprout more easily on exposed soil than under water.
- Clean the bunds and dry edges of the field. Plants left there can drop seed back into your bukid every season.
What to Do at Each Age of Your Rice
- 0 to 5 days: keep the soil saturated. Use a pre emergence herbicide only if the field had many weeds last season.
- 6 to 10 days: hand weed in transplanted rice. In direct seeded rice, this is the window for an early post emergence spray.
- 11 to 20 days: keep water in the field, weed by hand or with a rotary weeder, and let Azolla and the Altica beetle help. Spray only if those fail.
- 21 to 30 days: top up the water and keep weeding. Spray only if weeding fails.
- 31 to 40 days (transplanted rice): hand weed. A spray this late is only a rescue.
- After any post emergence spray, bring the water back within 1 to 3 days at 3 to 5 cm and hold it for 4 to 5 days. Keep young rice above it.
Active Ingredients That Work on Broadleaves
If water and weeding cannot hold Indian heliotrope down, choose an active ingredient that works on broadleaves at the age of your rice. Each active ingredient in it is in a herbicide registered in the Philippines for rice. Shop by the ingredient on the label, never by the brand. If your field also has other kinds of weeds, the weed control helper in anee.io finds the ingredients that cover all of them.
| Rice age (days after planting) | Transplanted rice (lipat tanim) | Direct seeded rice (sabog tanim) |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 5 days | Pretilachlor, Oxadiazon, Butachlor plus 2,4 D IBE, Pyrazosulfuron ethyl plus pretilachlor, Imazosulfuron, Penoxsulam plus butachlor, Tefuryltrione plus triafamone, Thiobencarb plus 2,4 D IBE | Pretilachlor, Oxadiazon, Pretilachlor plus butachlor, Butachlor plus 2,4 D IBE, Pendimethalin, Pyrazosulfuron ethyl plus pretilachlor, Butachlor with safener |
| 6 to 10 days | Butachlor plus propanil, Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Penoxsulam plus cyhalofop butyl, Pendimethalin, Cyhalofop butyl plus propanil, Imazosulfuron, Propyrisulfuron, Clomazone plus propanil, Thiobencarb plus propanil, Flucetosulfuron, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl | Butachlor plus propanil, Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Pyribenzoxim plus cyhalofop butyl, Penoxsulam plus cyhalofop butyl, Cyhalofop butyl plus propanil, Pyrazosulfuron ethyl plus pretilachlor, Pendimethalin, Propyrisulfuron, Clomazone plus propanil, Thiobencarb plus propanil, Pretilachlor plus pyribenzoxim, Penoxsulam, Flucetosulfuron, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl |
| 11 to 20 days | Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Pyribenzoxim plus cyhalofop butyl, Penoxsulam plus cyhalofop butyl, Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Bentazone, Cyhalofop butyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Propyrisulfuron, Fenoxaprop P ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Flucetosulfuron, Carfentrazone ethyl, Florpyrauxifen benzyl, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl | Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Pyribenzoxim plus cyhalofop butyl, Penoxsulam plus cyhalofop butyl, Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Bentazone, Pyribenzoxim, Cyhalofop butyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Propyrisulfuron, Fenoxaprop P ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Flucetosulfuron, Carfentrazone ethyl, Florpyrauxifen benzyl, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl |
| 21 to 30 days | 2,4 D amine, 2,4 D IBE, MCPA, Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Bentazone, Metsulfuron methyl plus chlorimuron ethyl, Fenoxaprop P ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Carfentrazone ethyl | 2,4 D amine, 2,4 D IBE, Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Pyribenzoxim plus cyhalofop butyl, MCPA, Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Bentazone, Metsulfuron methyl plus chlorimuron ethyl, Pyribenzoxim, Carfentrazone ethyl |
| 31 to 40 days | Metsulfuron methyl plus chlorimuron ethyl | Not listed for direct seeded rice |
Spray Safely
Use only herbicides registered with the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority, and follow the label on the pack: the rate, the timing, the water and the protective clothing. Switch herbicide groups between seasons so the weeds do not learn to survive them. Our guide to herbicides for rice explains the groups.
Keep Indian Heliotrope Out Next Season
- Plant clean, certified seed. Weed seeds mixed into the punla are the easiest way in.
- Keep the seedbed, the canals and the bunds free of weeds, so seed does not wash or blow into the paddy.
- Prepare the land well: flood, plow, let the weed seeds sprout, then kill them when you harrow. Level the field so water covers it evenly.
- Pull escapes before they flower and set seed, and carry them out of the paddy instead of leaving them on the bund.
- Keep the field clean after harvest and through the fallow, so fewer seeds build up in the soil for next season.
These steps work for every broadleaf weed in the paddy, not only this one. The weed management guide puts them in order for a whole season.
Not Sure It Is Indian Heliotrope?
Take a clear photo of the leaf, the stem and the flower or seed head, then ask Anee, the smart farm technician in anee.io, in Tagalog or English. Anee tells you which weed it most likely is, its group, and what to do at the age of your rice. You can also put the weeding days on your cropping calendar, so the team knows when to go in.
anee.io keeps your weeding, spraying and water on one calendar, and Anee answers when a plant looks wrong.
- Weeding days on the season calendar
- Photos and notes for every lot
- Anee, the smart farm technician, in Tagalog or English
Questions Farmers Ask About Indian Heliotrope
What is Indian heliotrope called in Tagalog and other local names?
How do I control buntot leon in my rice field?
Why do farmers call it elepante or buntot leon?
Get Indian Heliotrope out of your field
With Libre + Anee, read the whole guide: how to tell it from your crop, and what to do and spray at every age of your crop.
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